33 Facts About Werner Haberkorn

Werner Haberkorn was a German-Brazilian engineer, photographer, and businessman.

Together with his brother, Geraldo Werner Haberkorn, he founded one of the most important postcard companies in the country, Fotolabor.

Werner Haberkorn left a legacy of aerial photographs, panoramic views, advertising stills, postcards, albums and photographic montages.

Werner Haberkorn was born on March 12,1907, in Mislowitz in the Upper Silesia region.

Werner Haberkorn graduated with a degree as a machine engineer, specializing in aircraft mechanics.

Werner Haberkorn was a photography hobbyist, and was influenced mainly by his father, who shared the same passion.

Werner Haberkorn recorded daily life in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, as well as life in factories and streets and some landscape photographs.

Werner Haberkorn toured Petropolis, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, staying for a month and a half in Brazil.

Werner Haberkorn used his body of photography from his 1936 to explain conditions of daily life in Brazil.

Werner Haberkorn arrived in Brazil as an immigrant in 1937, a year after his initial visit to the country.

Werner Haberkorn was the first of his family to settle in Brazil.

Werner Haberkorn did not work in photography at first; he was the commercial representative of a German manufacturer.

Werner Haberkorn left his role as a spokesman for the company, as there was great difficulty in importing the machinery from Germany as a consequences of World War II.

Werner Haberkorn's company was one of the most active publishers of postcards in Sao Paulo.

Werner Haberkorn initially offered photocopying service and did works aimed at industrial photography, creating product catalogs and advertising for various brands.

Werner Haberkorn attributed part of Fotolabor's success to a photocopy machine.

Only two establishments had this equipment in the region of the old center of Sao Paulo, and the company of the Werner Haberkorn brothers was one of them.

Werner Haberkorn expanded the services in 1950, adding developing, color copies, and photography for industry and commerce.

Werner Haberkorn increased to 40 professionals to accommodate this great production.

The Werner Haberkorn brothers made an attempt to print the postcard with colors, but the quality of the chosen process was low and they were not successful.

Werner Haberkorn was responsible for keeping Fotolabor running until the last year of its operation, since Geraldo's unit closed its activities in the 1980s.

Werner Haberkorn's photography was essentially technical and his main objective was to document the changes brought about by modernity and the development of the city.

Werner Haberkorn initially worked in industrial photography, taking jobs linked to architectural projects and other commercial photography.

Werner Haberkorn preferred advertising-style work; it was a way to showcase his company's products.

Werner Haberkorn was careful to choose the same angles and places over the years to clarify changes to the urban landscape.

Werner Haberkorn photographed an urban scene, and in two or three years he saw that it had completely changed.

In general, Werner Haberkorn's photographs create the possibility of reconstructing, through them, a new concept of urban beauty.

Werner Haberkorn had an acquaintance who was able to contact the Brazil Ministry of Aviation, allowing him access to an airplane in the 1940s to photograph the city, something that uncommon up to that point.

Unlike other companies in the photographic market, which imported all equipment from abroad, Werner Haberkorn used his engineering knowledge to assemble a unique machine for one of Fotolabor's services.

Werner Haberkorn took a course in Rio de Janeiro to learn about the colored photographic paper of the AGFA company.

Werner Haberkorn's lenses registered from low buildings to their replacement with buildings with more than ten floors.

Currently, the Werner Haberkorn Collection is part of the collection of the Museu Paulista Collection, and was acquired in 1999.

The relevance of Sao Paulo to Werner Haberkorn's production is clear: 367 of them depict the city.